In the three months since Occupy Wall Street protesters first set up camp in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, no one in the movement they started has managed to articulate exactly what they want. But what the Occupy movement lacks in terms of a coherent message, they more than make up for in direct action.
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Yesterday, Occupy protesters tried to shut down 11 West Coast ports from San Diego to Anchorage in an attempt to “disrupt the profits of the one percent.” According to the Occupiers, our nation’s ports have “become economic engines for the elite” that allow “the 1 percent” to “rip the shirts off the backs of the 99 percent who turn their profits.”
The people who run the Port of Oakland see it differently. They purchased ads in local newspapers on Sunday explaining, “Shutting down the Port of Oakland is a bad idea. Another shutdown will only make things worse — diverting cargo, tax revenue and jobs to other communities. It will hurt working people and harm our community.”
The working people who depend on the Port of Oakland for their livelihoods didn’t want to see the ports shut down either. “I will lose about $350, and at holiday time that hurts,” truck driver Hai Ngo told The San Francisco Chronicle. “It’s just a waste of our time and money, and won’t accomplish anything.”
The Occupiers claim that the target of Monday’s port shutdown is just one firm: SSA Marine, a shipping company owned in part by Goldman Sachs. But a port shutdown is a crude tool that affects all commerce, not just businesses associated with Wall Street. In cities without ports, like Denver, local Occupy cells tried to show solidarity by shutting down a Walmart distribution center. Again, protesters gave no thought to those who need Walmart’s products or those who depend on Walmart paychecks.
The Port of Los Angeles is the nation’s busiest shipper of containers. Long Beach is second, and Oakland is fifth. Yesterday’s coordinated attempt to shut down trade throughout the United States has made clear that Occupy Wall Street is prepared to cripple the U.S. economy to prove a point they cannot even articulate.
When they’re not trying to cause economic havoc, they are busy draining the treasuries of state and local governments. The Washington Examiner reported yesterday that Occupy DC has cost the Metropolitan Police Department $1.3 million so far. Across the country, Occupy encampments have cost city law enforcement agencies at least $22 million, and that number will surely rise.
Local government budgets are already tight. So are the family budgets of middle-class Americans who depend on our nation’s business and commerce. Perhaps the Occupiers can afford the luxury of setting aside productive activity for weeks and months to create new burdens for the rest of us, but the real 99 percent cannot. It is time for liberal leaders like President Obama to own up to their responsibilities and tell the Occupiers to go home.
